NIGHT VISION
A SUPERPOWER WORTH HAVING
We all tell ourselves that night vision has not been a thing for centuries and we can fight our battles at night just fine without them if need be.
There is some truth to that. There is also a tendency to think that Night Observation Devices (NODS) give us a superpower that will let us see anyone before they see us, the same tendency with wearing camouflage and thinking we are invisible.
Both are wrong thinking.
Until you have actually ran around in 0%-25% moonlight with a high-end NOD, you have no clue what you are missing and the advantage they give you against those without.
MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH NODS
My first look into a NOD was a GEN2 PVS-4 mounted to my M60 machinegun at Infantry Training School (ITS) at Camp Pendelton, CA in 1984. Very cool weapon sight.
The first time I used NVGs was in 1986 during Operation “Starlight” (IIRC) in S. Korea as a young Marine standing “tail-end Charlie” watch for our platoon. They handed me a set of GEN1 PVS-5’s and I doubt they even showed me how to focus them.
I could see in the dark, but never having used them before, I took them off pretty quickly.
My depth perception was gone instantly along with my natural night vision. I can remember getting a headache in the short time I was looking through them and can only assume the gain was cranked as high as it would go.
MY FIRST SET OF NODS
Fast forward to my early prepper days in 2010 when I could NOT afford GEN2/3, there was a great little unit Armasight put out that was heralded as a GEN1+ that they called the SPARK CORE. At ~$500.00 it was a lot of bang for the buck and was a decent size monocular (good review here) that had accessories to mount it to a helmet or rifle and even had a unit to put a dot on the front as a weapon sight.
Until a year ago this was still in my possession and my only NOD device. While it was really only useable with a good IR torch like the Streamlight 88704 Super TAC IR while mounted behind a red dot, (I had a helmet setup for it, but got rid of it as it was not going to work for walking around, DOF was very narrow), it gave me a significant advantage over anyone without a NOD of their own.
SEEING WHAT I WAS MISSING
Then I inherited some money and decided my preps were to a point that I could splurge on a GEN3 PVS-14 and laser for my rifle. A total night fighting package.
Unfortunately, I bought during a “high cycle” (2021) when demand was up and supply low. I got a nice tube from ReadyMadeResources.com but overpaid by about $1500 at the time in comparison to today’s tube prices.
RMR was/is a third-party seller of tubes made by NVD (Night Vision Devices) and the owner was a standup Christian that would talk directly on his cell phone to you.
When I had no clue on what to look for, I relied on this level of customer service to get a good tube. He personally said he would pick a good one for me, and he did.
Having a high end GEN3 PVS-14 was like night and day compared to the GEN1+ SPARK CORE unit. It really cannot be described; it must be experienced.
THEN I LOOKED AT ANOTHER PVS-14
Like looking through quality “sniper” glass, once you are at the top shelf level and think you have the best out there, I suggest YOU DO NOT LOOK THROUGH ANOTHER TUBE AGAIN!
Like the day my buddy and I traded views through both our high-end scopes. I had a $2500 US Optics 3.8-17X bomb of a scope, and he had a $3400 S&B 4-16X.
I loved that US Optics (back when they made their own stuff and were top shelf) but one look through that S&B and I never looked at my scope the same way again. The extra crispness and brightness of the S&B was something I would not have noticed if not compared directly side by side.
I held off and kept my scope, which turned out to be a prudent choice, as I got out of Long-range shooting a few years later anyway. But the lesson learned was “stop looking once you find what you want.” Ignorance is bliss.
I was not so prudent when a co-worker said he had a high FOM tube also and asked if I wanted to compare it to mine. My previous experience told me “Don’t do it” but I did!
If you don’t know what you are looking for in a NOD, here is a great article by offgridweb.com to read on tube specs:
To summarize the above article, these are the specs you want to look at:
Photocathode: 1,900 or higher
EBI: 1.5 or lower
SNR: 26.0 or higher
Center Resolution: 64 LP/mm
Halo: 1.0 or lower
FOM: 1728 or higher
TWO TUBES AND THE “TALE OF THE TAPE”
The spec sheets on the two tubes were pretty close as seen below:
Just looking at the specs they seem to be very “like” tubes. But seeing is believing and I’m going to point out what I saw and what property of the tube I believe to be responsible.
I’m no expert and maybe all wet here but the characteristics I’m seeing, and the spec differences I point out are what I believe to be the cause.
FOM
Like stereo “watts” do not tell the whole story of a stereo system, FOM does not tell all about a NOD either. Many times, this is the only value a seller will give you because they want you to believe a FOM is a FOM is a FOM but that is not the case.
As you can see the RMR tube has a higher center res. but lower SNR which (RES*SNR=FOM) but which is more preferred? SNR or RES? Better RES with lower SNR is going to give you grainier RES in theory.
Looking through both, I can tell you that I do not notice the difference in RES between 82 L/mm and 72 L/mm. I do notice a slightly “cleaner” look on the higher SNR TNVC tube, but I really have to look for it and would not notice it if not going back and forth between the two tubes.
Chuck Pressler’s opinion is highest RES with best EBI if he’s buying tube, and he should know better. If you don’t know the name, google it.
PHOTOCATHODE
The ability to amplify the incoming signal is how I look at this. The tubes are within 168 and closely matched (+/-100 being a cutoff for building dedicated tubes, according to the article) and in comparison, the TNVC tube is a tad brighter at full gain.
This is noticeable when switching back and forth, but not so much when looking through both in bino mode. For a bridged bino setup, I turn the brighter one down a tad to match, but they are close enough to work just fine.
EBI
This one really shows up and is why I ended up buying the TNVC tube from my co-worker. The comparison area we were using at work really made this stand out.
As shown in the article, the importance of this parameter is critical in warm weather areas, but not colder climates like my AO in the PNW. That being said, it does show up as the differing parameter between these two similar tubes I own.
In 90% of my field use it is not seen, but at work we were looking out a dark tunnel into the light and the better “contrast” (EBI) of the TNVC tube made the RMR tube look like garbage (like a closed down aperture) in this particular worst-case scenario.
On top of that, it caused a halo effect around the end of the tunnel where the lighted objects were beyond the darkness.
The lower EBI tube (TNVC) looked like what you see when you are taking a picture of a bright object surrounded by darkness and you lock exposure to the darker part of the image, illuminating (exposing up, reducing contrast) the whole image.
The higher EBI of the RMR tube made this scenario look “closed down” on exposure as shown in the demo on my iPhone below.
The light brightness is not changing, only the exposure (representing EBI) is being opened up for “lesser span” of exposure. Verses the darkening at the end that represents a “increasing span” of contrast that a higher EBI value equates to.
Since the two tubes have the same HALO rating, I can only assume this parameter (EBI) is responsible for a very slight increase in halo effect when looking at lights in the distance at night.
LONG STORY SHORT
Unless you can look through a NOD, you need to have a discussion with someone that works on them as a profession. My suggestion is talking to the folks at TNVC.com and letting them configure a tube around your needs & budget constraints.
The specs don’t always tell the tale and you don’t need to chase the “best” to have very usable and capable night vision. An 1800 FOM, green phosphorous tube is light years ahead of GEN1 and not in the same galaxy compared to having nothing.
THE REST OF THE STORY
The rest of the story is that after purchasing the TNVC tube with intent to sell my RMR tube, I learned the hard way that many are not willing to plop down $3K on a NOD and nobody wants to buy from a non-dealer on the internet. I would not either, still stinging from my last online transaction where I was ripped off.
Locally, I work with people that have five times that much into guns they never shoot, but just don’t see the value of such gear as NODs. The reason is they don’t foresee an upcoming civil war and/or grid down event on the horizon, their normalcy bias will not allow it. IYKYK
So not being able to sell the tube, I asked the XO if I could keep it and run both as BINOs using a pano-bridge.
MONO vs. BINO VISION
Something that I did not realize until doing it, but putting two PVS-14s up to your face does NOT increase the FOV or double it as you would expect. It remains at a fixed 40 degrees each that overlap each other 100% if perfectly parallel.
What it does do is improve your equilibrium because both eyes are functioning as Yah designed them to, in binocular vision. There is a small learning curve to walking with a single NOD in front of you.
A popular method of opening the FOV up a bit is to use a “pano-bridge” of some sort that splays the tubes open a bit causing an overlap in the center.
This creates the same effect you see when widening a pair of binoculars up, wider FOV but overlapping rings in the center.
The pano-bridge increases your FOV but once you are past 55 degrees of separation you are no longer looking through the center of the tubes and your RES is being reduced as the measurement is guaranteed at the center of the tube, not the edges.
ARE DUAL PVS-14’s BETTER THAN DUAL TUBES?
Depends... Dedicated dual tubes are designed as a matched set and are lighter as a whole unit, but at the sacrifice of one power supply and loss of redundancy that two bridged PVS-14s will give you.
As a prepper and expecting the use of my NODs to be TEOTWAWKI, there will be no Amazon.com to order spare parts from when I need them the most.
In SHTF, if one unit goes down… I have a very capable single unit left with a spare parts unit, instead of a $12K paperweight.
I’m more than happy to give up a lighter setup for redundancy in this case. Not only does it give me a backup monocular system not to mention being able to hand one out to a team member without NODs and double the effectiveness of fighting at night.
BOTTOM LINE
Once you have the basics (1year of food, carbine & 1K ammo, water source & filtration means) done, get a PVS-14, the best you can afford.